Headaches and Meddlings
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Severus is ill and just wants to be left in peace. Warnings: A plotless drabble! AU, partly OOC, sick!Severus. Also involves Minerva and Poppy, but mainly concentrated on Severus.


**Headaches**** and Meddlings **

_Warning: This is just a pointless drabble, which I wrote while I was sick._

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It was just a normal Thursday evening in April at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Professor Snape was sitting at his desk behind a huge mountain of parchments to grade. Since he had spent the whole Easter holidays ill in bed, he was very much behind correcting tests, essays and homework.

During the last few days after his recovery, he had spent every free minute brewing potions for Madam Pomfrey, knowing that she urgently needed some of the potions, although she wasn't bothering him in order to give him some rest.

Now however, it was essential that he began working on the mountain in front of him. He pulled the first small pile of parchments close, looking in disdain at Neville Longbottom's handwriting, when his expression suddenly turned into disgust as the letters on the parchment turned into small noodles that began to move along the lines.

Severus blinked a few times in order to clear his vision; however, the noodles remained to crawl over the parchment, causing his stomach to churn. He just in time managed to dash to the bathroom in order to get rid of the mushrooms he had eaten for dinner. '_Oh no, don't let me get sick again so soon_,' he mused in desperation as he slowly returned to his seat, throwing a hesitant glance at the parchment, causing his stomach to push back more mushrooms.

'_I can't grade any parchments tonight_,' Severus decided and headed to his private lab to down a potion against the splitting headache he had developed during the last thirty minutes. Taking a stomach calming draught as well, he retired to his bedroom, hoping that at least the stomach calming draught would work well enough to let him get some sleep.

HP

Thankfully, the potion helped and he slept through till the morning. However, when he woke up, his headache was still as bad as the evening before and he felt very dizzy. '_I feel feverish_,' he thought, pointing his wand at his head to take his temperature, shocked at how high it was. '_Thank God it's Friday, and I've only three classes to teach before the weekend_,' he mused as he dragged himself to his lab to gulp down a headache potion and a fever reducer. Deciding to skip breakfast, he made his way to his classroom to prepare everything for his first class.

While his most hated Gryffindor and Slytherin class brewed an easy healing potion, he remained at his desk, pretending to grade a small pile of essays, glad that the writing didn't look like noodles anymore, although the letters were dancing up and down in changing intervals.

"Professor, Neville's potion has a strange colour," the insufferable know-it-all suddenly spoke up, causing Severus to sigh in exasperation.

He dragged himself over to the Gryffindor dunderhead, seeing that he had obviously forgotten to throw the moon fern in. "You forgot to insert the moon fern. You can still put it in after the dried frog skin. Stir three and a half times counter-clockwise afterwards," he instructed the stunned boy and slowly returned to his seat, unaware of the strange looks the Gryffindors threw in his direction.

HP

Severus sighed in relief as the last morning class was over. He greedily gulped down another headache potion and fever reducer and lay down on the sofa, glad to be able to put his achy head down, when Twinkle, the Headmaster's personal house-elf appeared with a small pop, bowing deeply.

"Twinkle is sorry, Professor Severus Snape, sir, but Mistress Minerva insists you has to attends lunch today," the elf told him, before she popped away with another bow.

'_Oh no_,' Severus groaned inwardly as he dragged himself through a shortcut from the dungeons to the backside of the Great Hall. Schooling his face into a blank mask, he approached the Head table, taking his usual seat next to Minerva.

"Ah, thank God you're here, Severus," Minerva began to speak. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy had a huge fight in the halls between the first and the second morning class. Mr. Potter has a concussion and Mr. Malfoy two broken ribs. They are still in the hospital wing, and Poppy wants to keep them overnight. What do you suggest as punishment?"

"I leave it to you to punish the dunderheads," Severus replied softly, unaware of the disbelieving look of concern Minerva threw him at his reaction. "If you would excuse me for all meals over the weekend please, I need to do an important potions experiment."

"Very well, Severus; please make sure you don't forget to eat and sleep," Minerva replied firmly, worriedly eyeing her younger colleague as he slowly ate two small potatoes, before he excused himself.

HP

After the end of the afternoon class, Severus made his way to his lab, fetched several phials of headache potions and fever reducers and went to bed, feeling very feverish and sore but relieved at the prospect of being able to get some undisturbed rest during the next two days. While he had been ill during the Easter holidays, his colleagues had made a huge fuss about him, completely ignoring his wish for privacy; now however, he wanted nothing more than to be left alone until he felt better.

Severus spent the whole weekend in bed, merely dragging himself out of his bedroom when he had to use the bathroom or when one of his little snakes knocked at his office door because he was needed. However, on Sunday evening, he still didn't feel better at all. '_I wonder what's wrong with me_,' he mused as he searched for a cool place on his pillow to rest his head. '_If it was an infection, my fever should come down during the next two days. If not, I need to go and see Poppy, as much as I detest all the fussing_.' He gulped down more potions and finally fell into a disturbed sleep.

It was a few hours later that he suddenly heard strange voices around him. He blearily opened his eyes but couldn't see anything but a white mist. It took a few minutes, before he could make out two dragons. One of them, the green dragon, was blowing fire at him, the other one, a white dragon, blew ice that felt soothing to his hot skin.

"Yes, not only I, but even Ms. Granger noticed that he behaved strangely. She told me he even helped Mr. Longbottom brew his potion," the green dragon explained, sounding extremely worried.

"He is very ill, and he seems to have taken way too many headache potions and fever reducers," the white dragon replied in a stern voice. "I'll watch him here tomorrow, and if his condition doesn't improve, I'll take him with me to the hospital wing. Please cancel his classes for the whole week."

"Severus, can you hear me?" a soft voice penetrated his ears.

"I can hear you," he replied in an upset voice. "Can you let me sleep and stop breathing fire at me? It's much too hot here anyway. Take the other dragon and leave me in peace."

"He is delirious," the white dragon said worriedly, waving its foreleg to blow more ice at him.

'_Strange; the dragons sound like Minerva and Poppy_.' With that Severus drifted back to a dreamless sleep, only waking up when his alarm went off in the morning. '_Thank God it was only a nightmare_,' he realised as he glanced around the room, noticing that the dragons were gone. '_I couldn't stand their fussing again_.'

He dragged himself to his classroom and opened the door wide for the Slytherin and Gryffindor first-years to come in. However, to his huge surprise, no one was waiting in front of the door, and as he looked around in confusion, he saw a parchment, which was attached to the door with magic, stating, "All Potions classes are cancelled for the whole week."

'_What the...._' Severus mused as he noticed the signature under the text. '_Minerva!_' he realised, '_It wasn't a nightmare. How dare she cancel my classes for the whole week!_' While his headache painfully flared up, he dragged himself back into the sanctuary of his private quarters, somehow unable to not feel grateful towards his meddling older colleagues.

**The End**

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I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


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